Berlin sends new agriculture envoy to help Western Balkans with EU accession

As part of its efforts to secure EU accession for the Western Balkans, the German government is sending for the first time an agricultural attaché to the region to help it implement the often highly technical EU legislation in the field.

Read the original German story here.

During a five-day trip to North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Moldova, German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir announced the appointment of the new attaché on Tuesday (3 October).

“The establishment of an agricultural attaché in this region is a first,” he said. The newly created position is meant to help “represent German economic interests and provide greater support for the EU accession process of the Western Balkan states”.

Based at the German embassy in Skopje, the new attaché will represent the ministry and its policies “in North Macedonia and also in the other countries of the Western Balkans”, the ministry said.

Such attachés in foreign embassies represent Germany’s interests in trade and technical matters while acting as contacts for the host country.

Practical support

Since taking office, Germany’s three-party government has repeatedly called for the rapid accession of the Western Balkan states to the EU.

In May, for example, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on the EU to keep its promises to the region’s countries in a speech to the European Parliament, while Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has also urged progress on the accession process on several occasions.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are candidates for EU membership, and Kosovo is a potential candidate. However, while some of these have been in the accession process for decades, progress has been slow.

While the appeals of Scholz and Baerbock are aimed more at the political blockades that stand in the way of accession for many Western Balkan states, Özdemir’s push comes at a more practical level.

Adapting to the EU’s extensive and sometimes highly complex legislation in the agricultural sector is difficult for many countries to manage, both technically and in terms of human resources. At the same time, agriculture is of great economic importance for many Western Balkan countries.

The new attaché is set to support this technical process, building on the cooperation between Germany’s Agriculture Ministry and the agricultural ministries of the Western Balkan countries that began in 2014 as part of the so-called Agricultural Policy Dialogue.

“The agricultural and food sector is of great economic and social importance in all Western Balkan countries and plays a prominent role in the EU accession negotiations,” Özdemir stressed.

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Countering Russian influence

But the increased cooperation is also about pushing back Russian influence in the region.

“We must not allow Russia to expand its influence and further threaten the European peace order,” said Özdemir.

“Agricultural policy as an instrument can make a decisive contribution to strengthening and expanding the ties between our states,” he added.

According to the minister, Germany’s tangible economic interests are at stake. “A prerequisite for German economic exports is political stability in the region.”

Meanwhile, Germany is also working to prepare the EU’s agricultural policy for the accession of Moldova, Georgia and, above all, agricultural heavyweight Ukraine. Moldova and Ukraine are already candidates for membership.

The accession of several countries with large agricultural sectors could turn the EU’s multi-billion euro subsidy programme for agriculture, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), upside down.

According to an internal EU study, quoted by Financial Times, the accession of eight or nine new members would “cut all existing agricultural subsidies by around 20%”.

To ensure that CAP subsidies remain affordable even after many more farms join the EU, the German government is advocating a move away from so-called direct payments, which are paid solely based on a farm’s agricultural area.

Instead, Berlin is pushing for certain public services, such as environmental or climate protection, to be rewarded.

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[Edited by Gerardo Fortuna/Zoran Radosavljevic]